{"id":9779,"date":"2012-10-02T11:18:31","date_gmt":"2012-10-02T15:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=9779"},"modified":"2012-10-02T11:18:31","modified_gmt":"2012-10-02T15:18:31","slug":"the-bible-inspiration-and-fundamentalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/10\/the-bible-inspiration-and-fundamentalism.html","title":{"rendered":"The Bible, Inspiration, and Fundamentalism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Chris Heard<\/a> was \u201cinspired\u201d by a recent blog post of mine<\/a> to share some thoughts on his blog<\/a> about the Bible and inspiration.<\/p>\n

First, let me emphasize that, had the terminology of \u201cinspiration\u201d been widely used in the Bible as a way of indicating the distinctive character of sacred texts, I would not have made the proposal that I did, that English speakers \u201cmean what they say\u201d when using the term. If this were a discussion about a Biblical term, then obviously looking at the \u201cplain meaning\u201d or any meaning of the English word that translates something in Greek or Hebrew would not be the way to draw conclusions.<\/p>\n

It is interesting to see just how infrequently the term \u201cinspired\u201d and related words appear in English translations of the Bible. Where it does occur, it renders a very varied number of expressions in Hebrew and Greek, with more literal meanings ranging from \u201cthe Spirit of the Lord spoke, and his word was on my tongue\u201d (2 Samuel 23:1) to \u201cthe oracle\u201d (Proverbs 30:1) to \u201cthe man of the spirit\u201d (who in Hosea 9:7 is said to be demented \u2013 using the Hebrew word from which the Yiddish\u00a0meshugganah<\/em> derives).<\/p>\n

In all of these instances, the very act of a particular song or passage being marked out as \u201cinspired\u201d implies that the author of the book in which the oracle or inspired speech is embedded is not claiming the same status for the work as a whole.<\/p>\n

Be that as it may, it is problematic to group such diverse phrases \u2013 which themselves leave open the nature of the phenomenon of inspiration \u2013 under the umbrella of the English word \u201cinspiration\u201d which itself is normally used for a broader phenomenon not limited to the writing of Scripture. But to the extent that the term is used, its breadth is precisely what makes it appropriate, because there is no single concept of \u201cinspiration\u201d in the Bible or in universally-accepted later creedal statements about the Bible.<\/p>\n

In discussing creeds and the avoidance thereof by some Christians, Mason Slater<\/a> hints at the actual order of logic for many of those who speak of Biblical inerrancy or infallibility in our time:<\/p>\n

I believe it, the Bible says it, that settles it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One almost misses the days of the classic fundamentalists, whose stand, however problematic, was typically about things that could actually be found in the Bible, and not about the defense of the free market and the right to own a gun<\/a>. The era we live in, in which large numbers of people believe that the Bible is inerrant, and because they are unfamiliar with the Bible\u2019s contents, merely assume that their own views are what the inerrant Word of God articulates. It is a dangerous combination. And so it is crucial to emphasize that merely believing something is not good enough \u2013 as this image shared on the blog Unreasonable Faith<\/a> nicely illustrates:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We need to move away from the idea that, when the head and heart seem to be in tension<\/a>, faith and appropriate religious expression are always on the side of the heart \u2013 and this is nicely illustrated by a cartoon by David Hayward<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On this and related topics, see Chris Heard\u2019s next post<\/a> in what promises to be a series, and\u00a0Roger Olson\u2019s explanation<\/a> of what he means when he says that the Bible is \u201ctrustworthy.\u201d Andy Byers<\/a> emphasizes that the Bible is very hard to read. And Alden Swan<\/a> has a post on the ways churches today typically misunderstand Romans, and why.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Heard was \u201cinspired\u201d by a recent blog post of mine to share some thoughts on his blog about the Bible and inspiration. First, let me emphasize that, had the terminology of \u201cinspiration\u201d been widely used in the Bible as a way of indicating the distinctive character of sacred texts, I would not have made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,131,139,43,101],"tags":[1140,2772,3675,3678,4191,4485,5232,9642,10940],"class_list":["post-9779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-christianity-religion","category-fundamentalism-religion","category-inerrancy","category-theology","tag-bible","tag-doctrine","tag-fundamentalism-religion","tag-fundamentalists","tag-greek-languages","tag-hebrew-languages","tag-inspiration","tag-prophecy","tag-scripture"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Bible, Inspiration, and Fundamentalism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Chris Heard was "inspired" by a recent blog post of mine to share some thoughts on his blog about the Bible and inspiration. 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